The Greater Good
by Donna Vito Frutti
Summary: Grindelwald's voice rang out, penetrating even the darkest crevices of his mind. And then nature itself seemed to respond to his call. Strong winds started to blow, making his robes flap behind him. The trees swayed from side to side. The dry leaves on the ground rose up, as if in greeting, and, Grindelwald, himself, appeared. Grindelward, the terror of Europe. Gellert, his friend.


**THE GREATER GOOD**

**-Donna Vito Fruttie**

**Quidditch League Fanfiction Contest **

**Season 2, Round 3**

**Position**** - **Beater 1

**Team**** - **Wimbourne Wasps

**Prompts**** - **Indesputable, "Choose it or Lose it"

**A/N**** - Enjoy**

**A/N**** - Review**

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**THE GREATER GOOD**

The ruins of a small village was before them. They were moving cautiously, barely making a sound. After what seemed a long time, they came near the base of a mountain.  
Mt Vesusius. The indomitable depths of fire. The vast unstoppable force. Just as, perhaps, Grindelwald, saw himself. Yet, he would be stopped that day.  
A forest spread out on the mountainside. Thick, and impenetrable.  
"We need to span out, Dumbledore," Slughorn said.  
"No." Dumbledore scanned the area before him. "There is a slight trace of magic over there."  
They walked towards the place Dumbledore indicated. "This is the place. Any moment now. "  
No one questioned how he knew that. No one ever questioned Dumbledore. They waited in the clearing, disguising themselves appropriately.  
Minutes passed by.  
Minerva felt a slight tingling in her legs, an indication that they were about to go numb. Elphinstone hummed to himself. Moody muttered to himself, going through the battle plans in his mind. The other hit wizards and aurors fidgeted with their wands, practising the commonly used and Amelia remained the only ones who were completely still. But whereas, Amelia had a predatory look in her face and looked ahead eagerly, Dumbledore was deep in thought.  
This day was going to end badly. If he won, it was still going to end badly. For, he already knew how it was going to end.  
It was foretold.  
Many knew that the woman was gifted. And she knew people. She could get inside a mind, even without her magic. Yet her gift was also her curse. For she had seen, no, foreseen many a bad thing happen to many a good man. She had watched as many wasted away, in spite of having known about their downfall. People came to her for her gift.  
Dumbledore had come to her for her advice. They had known each other for over forty-five years, and remained close friends. So it was only natural for him to have come to her. He had spent time on the matter. Confronting Grindelwald after all these years was not something that appealed to him. But the wizarding world had cried out to him and he could ignore them, no longer. That the threat of Grindelwald was growing stronger every day was indesputable.  
And once he had made up his mind, he went to the woman. Cassandra, her name was. The legendary seer. She was tall and elegant. Her hair was dark and long. She looked young and only the wisdom in her eyes betrayed her age.  
_You may win or lose this battle. But either way, the loss will be yours. _Cassandra's words rang through his mind. _For you may gain a victory, but lose your friend.  
_He had not been surprised. No one knew that Gellert Grindelwald had once been his friend. But if anyone could figure it out, it was Cassandra.  
_Do not be alarmed, _she had said, _my Inner Eye is'nt always right. Divination isn't an exact science. _Cassandra had come closer to him. _After all, I, once, wanted to win your heart, remember? _She traced her fingers over his heart.  
_But your heart was already won over. _She smiled warmly at him. _We don't get to choose who we love._  
Indeed.  
It will not stop me from facing him, he thought_. _The wizarding world looked up to him now. Expected him to act as their champion. And he had accepted, long at last. But how could he tell them the truth? Every ideal that Grindelwald stood for, he, himself, had once stood for. He couldn't tell them that he and Grindelwald had been friends. That they had planned it all together.  
For the greater good, of course. That's what they had said. And now, Grindelwald had taken those same ideals and twisted them into something that was unimaginable. Only the goal remained the same. The dominance of Magic. And it was all for the greater good.  
The greater good.  
_The eruption of Mt Vesuvius, last year, proved to be disastrous in the cities surrounding it. __Ottaviano covers most of the crater of the volcano. And as of now, the rebuilding of the city is still underway. People are still recovering, slowly. But there are still __areas that are beyond repair, villages that underwent significant destruction - massive loss of life and property.  
__That's where he will be.  
_He hadn't yet asked, but she had answered. Cassandra had given him the location of his former friend.  
_And if you wish to find him, that's where you should be.  
_She had said one last thing...  
_I will not live long, Albus. When you come back, you may not find me, for I shall be gone,_ she had said. _You have been a good friend to me. Will you, also, be a good friend to my family? Will you p__romise me that you will help my heir-  
_Dumbledore was awakened from his thoughts as Alastor turned to him, and whispered in a low voice. "I see someone. Invisible. To your right." Dumbledore, suddenly straightened up, brandishing his wand, and, seemingly, out if nowhere, a man was blasted out into the clearing. He fell hard on his back.  
"Justus, do you recognise him?" Dumbledore asked.  
Justus nodded."Yes. Indeed."  
"Its Artur Bronwood." Amelia said. "He left the ministry for Grindelwald."  
"Bloody scumbag," Alastor growled.  
"Artur Bronwood. You will be given leniency, if you cooperate with us," Minerva stated. Artur watched warily, as Dumbledore moved to stand right in front of him.  
**"**Where is your master." he said, quietly.  
"I shall die before I tell." Amelia started forward, but Alastor stopped her.  
Artur spat at them. "I will never give up Grindelwald. Never."  
"We can easily make you, Bronwood." said Ogden. He took out his wand but was interrupted by a cry of surprise. Roots, tendrils and creepers from the forest had suddenly shot out from the forest and wrapped themselves around Alastor and a few others. They were bewitched, no doubt to detect a magical threat. Minerva cast a spell and burned those away. Dumbledore followed suit, as did Justus and Slughorn. Amelia was already busy, cutting through the thick undergrowth with a spell. There were a few wizards camouflaged in the thick bushes.  
Ogden yelled at her. "Amelia, don't hurt them, we need them for questioning."  
"Like hell, we do," she yelled back. She easily deflected a well aimed curse and sent her own after it.  
Only Slughorn noticed more figures in dark, approaching the clearing, from a distance.  
"Albus!" he warned.  
Dumbledore whipped around at once and, in a long fluid motion, moved his wand. The bewitched tendrils that had wrapped around his team, loosened themselves and went after these new figures - Grindelwald's closest associates. One of them, Milah Karkaroff, said to be his lover, somehow broke free. She used a wandless spell and sent a volley of knives made of ice, at him.  
Dumbledore turned on the spot, and apparated. Within a moment, he appeared beside Milah. He disarmed and stunned her, in a single, fluid, wand movement. Meanwhile, a few more members of the opposition had arrived and engaged Dumbledore's crew.  
"Dumbledore, go," Amelia cried out. "We'll take care of this. Go find _him_."  
Dumbledore looked around. The people who had accompanied him were fighting bravely. He could see Cornelius, the ambitious young man, fighting a heavily built man; Minerva, his own protege, was efficiently casting spells that made her opponents back away, warily. Amelia, the ferocious tigress of the ministry, had a maniacal grin on her face, as she revelled in the battle rush. Justus was carefully incapacitating his opponents, making sure they were in a state for interrogation. Ogden the Bold, was busily taking down a group of younger men, all at once. Gawain was struggling against an apparent half giant.  
Nearby, Slughorn was performing a complex transfiguration spell that turned the ground into a quicksand. Their opponets, who fell into it were held fast, and unable to move. Alastor and Elphias were furiously deflecting curses from a wizard who used two wands. And countless others, who had accompanied him, were fighting the dark lord's young souls. Fighting against a foolish cause that he, himself, had helped come up with.  
_These younger minds_ _deserve the glory of a battle,_ Dumbledore thought, _Not I. __It ends today. _Determined, Dumbledore apparated once more.  
He reappeared on a higher ground, a cliff, very close to Mt Vesuvius.  
Dumbledore opened up his mind, relaying a single, powerful thought.

_I know you're here,_ he said._ Show yourself. _

His voice carried across. He let his mind wander around, trying to connect to another conscience, who was just as powerful as he was. There was a silence, and it grew heavier until-

_Dumbledore!_

Grindelwald's voice rang out, penetrating even the darkest crevices of his mind. And then nature itself seemed to respond to his call. Strong winds started to blow, making his robes flap behind him. The trees swayed from side to side. The dry leaves on the ground rose up, as if in greeting, and, Grindelwald, himself, appeared. Dust swirled around both of them in a wide circle, forming a high wall.  
Strong and powerful and very much human. Grindelwald, the terror of Europe.  
Gellert, his friend.  
And somehow, Dumbledore couldn't help but feel a little elated. He only said-  
"Surrender, Gellert, give up your wand and I shall personally ensure that you are treated well."  
Grindelwald seemed not to hear.  
"Albus, " Grindelawald gave his most charming, yet chilling, smile. Hadn't he always been charming and persuasive? So dedicated were his followers that they were willing to even die for him. "My old friend. Have you come, at last, to meet me?"  
"Gellert, let go of this madness," Dumbledore said, calmly. Grindelwald cocked his head to a side and looked at him curiously.  
"Is it mad, to want a better world? To fight for the greater good? Surely, you see why it has to be done."  
"Taking matters into your own hands and killing innocents is not the solution."  
"Stop me, then," Grindelwald said, "Or better yet, kill me." He spread out his arms before him. "While you still have the chance."  
Dumbledore's bright blue eyes seemed to pierce through the distance that separated them. "I do not wish to kill you, Gellert."  
"Then, you have become weak, Albus. You cannot win a war without death."  
"I don't wish to win the war. I wish, only, to stop you."  
Grindelwald let out a bark of laughter. And yet it had no mirth. "I, merely, stand for an idea ," he said. "You think you can stop me? I have already set the wave in motion. If I'm defeated, someone else will take my place. Perhaps, tomorrow. Perhaps, someone more terrible, more murderous. But someone will always take my place. For ideas cannot be stopped," he smiled coldly."Neither can I."  
"Nevertheless, you will be stopped today." Dumbledore said. He felt foolish, standing there. The power that Grindelwald had, did he not once wish for the same? "I implore you to step down. The destruction and death you have caused are far too terrible, far too evil. I knew you once, Gellert. I know you, no more."  
"And I implore you to join me. To change the world. To free it. Join me. I give you the chance for us to be friends again, working together again, inseparable once more," Grindelwald said. "Choose it or lose it." Grindelwald seemed to be emanating a sort of radiant power. It seemed to scorch him and everything around him.  
_So persuasive his words...so dark, the con of man.  
_He remembered the day when the Ministry had come to him for help against Grindelwald. They needed his views on someone who was equally, if not more, powerful than him.  
"_He's after the greater good," _he had said. _"Or, so he says. He thinks of himself as a revolutionary. A reformist and a saviour of the wizarding kind. He wishes to bring all wizards out of hiding. He wants the magical folk to rule over the non-magical. To protect them, he would say. But it would really be for power. And how best to experience power, if not by subjugating a few. It is what has swayed dark minds and dark hearts over the centuries. The idea of power, thoughts of weilding it, have always been intoxicating. And g__reater good is the term given to justify it."  
_He knew where his heart lay.  
"I refuse_."  
_A change seemed to have taken place in Grindelwald's features. His smile faded. His eyes grew sharper. His eyebrows arched and he straightened up, fiercely. They looked at each other in a cold silence.  
_Then, it begins_. _Old friend_.  
Even in the mind, his words sounded chilling. Dumbledore shook his head. _No, _he replied, his voice grave. There would be no pretenses now. No falsehoods. Only the truth of a battle. Dumbledore closed his eyes, taking a moment to gather himself. Grindelwald was going to be stopped. His friend, his enemy, will be brought to justice, and he was going to do this.  
As only he could.  
He opened his eyes.  
_It ends, now._

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**A/N -**** Enjoyed? **

**EXPLANATIONS AND STUFF**

**1) I have taken the liberty of making McGonagall around 16 years older. **I wanted her to be known as the right hand of Dumbledore, and was disappointed to learn she was only around 9 at the time of Grindelwald's defeat.

In this story, she's around 25.

By the way, according to canon, Voldemort would be 17, at this point.

**2) All the characters mentioned in the story, **save for Milah Karkaroff and Artur Bronwood**, are canon.**

**(I did a lotta research on that. Finding as many canon characters as possible who could accompany Dumbledore).**

**3) Milah Karkaroff **is something like the great-grandmother or grandmother of Igor Karkaroff**(Which ever fits. Let me know). **She would be, say, 52. Dumbledore and Grindelwald are both 64 (Canon. Born in 1881). I calculated, you know.

I think, great grandmother. Milah left her family to join Grindelwald.

**4) Artur Bronwood **is just a random name I made up. Nice, no?

**5) **Also**, Cassandra** in the story is actually Cassandra Trelawney and I have made her a close friend of Dumbledore's.

** Unlike, Sybill Trelawney, Cassandra is a true Seer, **who is also a sceptical, so, like, she will be the first to tell you Divination is ridiculous and unscientific,** and that her Inner Eye is a fraud. LOLZZ.**

**She is also, a highly skilled witch and does not always depend on her Inner eye.**

**6) And finally, as you all know, **this takes place in **1945**, when Grindelwald was defeated by Dumbledore.

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